“Transportation equity means giving people options to choose from, and letting them pick, what works best for them.” -Amy Huang, Community Capacity Planning Specialist in the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
The adoption of data standards, digital cartography, and data-intensive technologies has transformed mobility and access to travel in the past 15 years. Traveler-facing tools, including mobility and wayfinding apps (such as Google Directions (TM), Transit App (TM), MOOVEL, OneBusAway, and NextBus), have given travelers unprecedented abilities to discover transit services, be conveniently directed to transit locations, be able to compare travel options, filter possibilities by expressing personal travel preferences, and streamline trip information in one application. This convenience should not be underestimated: it is transforming not only travelers’ access to transit information but also how people actually use and experience public transit overall, and it has even been linked with downstream impacts on determinants of health. Through the “new mobility ecosystem,” more people are accessing more destinations with transit than ever before.
However, populations that have historically experienced travel disadvantages have yet to benefit from “new mobility” in the same way. As the transportation industry changes, it is important to reassess access to transit and mobility and, in particular, to ensure that the new ecosystem equitably supports people who have traditionally been transportation disadvantaged. Travelers with disabilities remain under-served because of pressing information needs that would enable equally seamless access to travel but that are currently understudied, unevaluated, and unaddressed.